Atakan Karahan, is an 18-year-old from Gebze, Turkiye - a suburb of 400,000 people located about 45 miles from Istanbul - and for the last 10 years he has loved playing tennis.

Hailing from a nation where Top 100 players are incredibly scarce (Marsel Ilhan did reach as high as world No. 77 in 2015), Atakan felt like he’d gone as far as he could training at home. He was hugely grateful for the training, and the support, but the lack of high-level players was something he could do nothing about.

Seeing Karahan’s talent, the Turkish Tennis Federation contacted the behemoth IMG Academy in the United States to see if they’d accept Karahan as a student.

For three months in 2022 Karahan moved to Florida to see if it could work.

“I loved all the coaches and loved the school and the campus, everything,” Karahan recalled on Tuesday. “It was someplace I really, really wanted to stay.”

Fortunately for the Turkish standout, the IMG coaches also wanted him to stay, and it has led to him being based at the school in Bradenton, Florida ever since.

And Karahan has done nothing but flourish as a result. A powerful right-hander who moves swiftly around the court, Karahan climbed up to No. 27 in the junior rankings this year. He’s enjoying his best Grand Slam result here at the US Open Junior Championships, having won his first two matches this week, including a punishing 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over Brazil’s Luis Guto Miguel in the second round, a battle that had both men taking medical timeouts during the match.

Karahan will now face Theo Papamalamis on Wednesday for a spot in the quarter-finals, heady territory for him.

He’s also just begun classes at the University of South Carolina, whose head coach, Josh Goffi, is on hand this week.

“He’s got a strong body, and his movement is his major asset,” Goffi said. “I don’t think he understands yet how good he can be, with the tools that he has. We’re very excited to have him and he’s going to be a contributor for us this year.”

Karahan, who was also courted by national US powerhouses like University of Texas and University of Georgia, has progressed well this year, getting to the final of a J300 in Belgium in May, and the semis of a J300 in Paraguay in February, while also reaching the third round of the Australian Open.

He said working with the strength coaches and the on-court technique coaches at IMG have made a huge difference.

Also helpful was having the chance to hit with ATP pros who occasionally come to the IMG campus.

“I’ve hit with Sebastian Korda, Jack Draper, and Kei Nishikori,” Karahan said. “It gives you a lot of confidence when you can hit with them and stay with them a little.”

Life at IMG hasn’t always been easy, Karahan admitted. He only gets to see his family in Turkiye about “once every six months.”

“I wouldn’t say I loved it all the time, but I wouldn’t say it was terrible. It just takes a lot of sacrifices,” Karahan said. “But the good thing is there were so many other juniors who were also far away from home, so we were like a team, all in it together.”

Karahan said he’s excited about the college tennis atmosphere he’s about to enjoy, and said his “gut feeling” told him South Carolina was the place for him for the next four years.

And here at the Open, he’s trying not to put expectations on himself; all he expects is to have fun, and maybe visit Central Park.

“I want to enjoy this atmosphere as much as I can,” Karahan said. “I don’t want to say ‘oh I want to make semi-final or final, I just want to have fun. And each day has been better than the last so far.”